Tech Titans nominations deadline extended until this FridayMTBCEvery year the Metroplex Technology Business Council honors the top technology innovators at the Tech Titans gala, a prestigious event that attracts about 800 of the area's top executives. Many past recipients have used the Tech Titans as a springboard in their path as top leaders in the industry, such as Tango Networks, which won the Emerging Company CEO Award in 2007 to CEO Doug Bartek, just a year after it was founded.

Why the AT&T/DirecTV deal is a different antitrust animal from Comcast/Time WarnerDallas Business JournalOn first glance, the two big deals facing regulatory scrutiny look similar. But Dallas-based AT&T's move to buy DirecTV and Comcast Corp.'s separate effort to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. are completely different animals, Attorney Amanda Wait, a partner and antitrust specialist at Dallas-based Hunton & Williams LLP, said in a recent interview.

Forget 'the cloud'; 'the fog' is tech's futureThe Wall Street JournalChristopher Mims, the former lead technology reporter for Quartz, writes: "I'm as big a believer in the transformational power of cloud computing as anyone you'll meet. Smartphones, which are constantly seeking and retrieving data, don't make sense without the cloud, and any business that isn't racing to push its data and software into someone else's data center is, in my view, setting itself up for disruption by a competitor who is."

Finding a needle in a big data haystack: Cloud-based analytics to the rescueTheServerSide.comHow do you find a needle in a big data haystack? For enterprises that have a gargantuan amount of information to handle, not being able to locate pertinent and meaningful information is the first hurdle to overcome before analytics even comes into the picture. That was the case for HGST, a major manufacturer of computing hardware with a pressing need to track data collected inside their production facilities. According to David Hinz, Director of Cloud & HPC Solutions for HGST, finding the required data to evaluate production processes was a quest that could prove lengthy or impossible.

10 things we learned from Pew Research's Internet of Things reportThe Guardian It's been fashionable to drop the phrase Internet of Things in tech circles for some time now, but what does it really mean? And just as importantly, what will its effects be in the years to come? The Pew Research Center Internet Project and Elon University Imagining the Internet Center have been wondering the same thing. They did something about it, too: canvassing more than 1,600 experts about where the Internet of Things will be by 2025.

US Chamber of Commerce Foundation: Dallas is the best place for startupsDallas Business JournalDallas is the friendliest city in the nation for entrepreneurs, according to a study conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The foundation recently released its Regulatory Climax Index, which scores cities based on regulations for starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, paying taxes and enforcing contracts.

Should US hackers fix cybersecurity holes or exploit them?The AtlanticThere's a debate going on about whether the U.S. government — specifically, the NSA and United States Cyber Command — should stockpile Internet vulnerabilities or disclose and fix them. It's a complicated problem, and one that starkly illustrates the difficulty of separating attack and defense in cyberspace.

Samsung explores iris detection tech for future mobile devicesZDNetSamsung is researching ways to integrate advanced biometric technology within our future smartphones and tablets. Both the Samsung Galaxy S5 and rival Apple's iPhone 5S use biometric technology through the implementation of a fingerprint scanner. Samsung's latest flagship smartphone was released seven months after Apple's device, but also used fingerprint scanning to give users a second means of authentication beyond PIN codes and gestures.

Oculus Rift coming to Chuck E. Cheese'sGameSpotThe Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is coming to Chuck E. Cheese's. The kid-friendly restaurant and play place founded by gaming icon Nolan Bushnell announced that it is now testing a "Chuck E. Cheese's Virtual Ticket Blaster Experience" using the virtual reality headset in select markets. The first is Dallas, with expansions planned for San Diego and Orlando, Florida.

Don't make these 9 deadly leadership mistakesInc.Being a leader isn't easy, and not every decision you make is going to be a good one. But, you can be a more effective leader if you avoid the most common mistakes that bosses make. The good news is that, with just a little bit of work and attention, these mistakes can be avoided and your company can thrive as a result.

IT salaries: 8 cold hard factsInformationWeekInformationWeek's 17th annual IT Salary Survey examines the highest- and lowest-paying industries, the lucrative skills and the best titles. How does your job stack up?

5 suggestions for better STEM education, from studentsMashableAlthough demand for workers with STEM qualifications has only grown in recent years, a minority of students elect to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in high school and college. To spark a discussion about how U.S. schools can motivate more students to The USA Science and Engineering Festival brought together its youth advisors for a Twitter chat April 17. During the discussion, several themes emerged — suggestions about how to improve STEM education from the very people who stand to benefit from that training.

Don't just embrace failure — Learn how to manage itEntrepreneur"Fail fast" is an overly used and loaded adage. Entrepreneurs don't wake up and ask themselves "How can I fail today?" What's important is not to embrace failure, but to figure out how to manage it.